Ultimate Italian Advanced (CD Pkg)

Rating:
Summary: Good Practice for the Advanced Speaker
Review: Definately for the advanced speaker, this program is best when the book is used along with the tapes. The accents are easy to understand and a good variety of topics (shopping, travel, computers, wine, architecture) is covered, although there is a strong emphasis on business and technology. The 2nd set of tapes has portions of the conversations on the 1st set, with language review in English and Italian interspersed. My biggest problem with this series is the length and spacing of pauses -- some really long sentences are rattled off all at once with only a short time to respond (really inconvenient while driving) and are then followed by a one word phrase. My Italian has improved since buying these, though, so all in all I would recommend it as a thorough review and practice for the advanced speaker.

Rating:
Summary: Too advanced
Review: I considered myself an intermediate to advanced speaker. Maybe I am only an intermediate speaker. The audio CD's phrases are too long, and the time provided to repeat is too short. The CD cover topics too quickly. There aren't enough examples in Italian to cover all the variations in any topic. There are two sets of CD's, one to use with the book at home, and the other to use on the go.

Rating:
Summary: Intensely Irritating
Review: I found the tapes intensely irritating to listen to. Just when you are getting into the dialogue, it gets interrupted with English speaking. There is far too much English on the tapes, and far too much mindless repeating of phrases verbatim. This is supposed to be an Advanced course!

Rating:
Summary: Vocabulary, Practice and Review
Review: I have been through this book twice now and am working on my third time through. I can't imagine a better format for self-teaching than this one. Each chapter starts with a 2-3 page dialog which is spoken on tape ("Learn at Home" set) once and then replayed again with time given to repeat each segment of the conversation. This is followed by 2-3 grammer sections, a short essay on an aspect of Italy and concluding with a quiz. Unfortunately, I have found the "Learn On the Go" tapes to be utterly worthless. They are far too fast and difficult to follow, especially when driving. If anyone is interested, I have copied the vocabulary for each chapter onto an Access database. I can also copy the list onto either Word or Excel.

Rating:
Summary: Vocabulary, Practice and Review
Review: I have been through this book twice now and am working on my third time through. I can't imagine a better format for self-teaching than this one. Each chapter starts with a 2-3 page dialog which is spoken on tape ("Learn at Home" set) once and then replayed again with time given to repeat each segment of the conversation. This is followed by 2-3 grammer sections, a short essay on an aspect of Italy and concluding with a quiz. Unfortunately, I have found the "Learn On the Go" tapes to be utterly worthless. They are far too fast and difficult to follow, especially when driving. If anyone is interested, I have copied the vocabulary for each chapter onto an Access database. I can also copy the list onto either Word or Excel.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for those not quite fluent yet
Review: Listening to the tapes (unfortunately it doesn't come on cd yet) gets you thinking in italian and it is a great way to further your skills. Not only are the dialogs well spoken, they also present some funny material- not your usual dry, run-of-the-mill texts that you encounter in some other language books. The book that comes along with it is also very informative regarding the grammar that is used in the dialogs and has a nice dictionary in the back of the book. I highly recommend this to anyone that is looking to acquire the skills needed to engage in an-everyday-social conversation.

Rating:
Summary: Great for Advanced Speakers
Review: This set is great, and it's actually the only tape set that I found appropriate for advanced level Italian. I think a minor drawback is that the length of time in between some of the phrases doesn't give you enough time to practice repeating the phrase completely. However, I still think the set is fantastic. It puts idioms, different grammatical constructions and vocabulary in the context of realistic conversations.

Rating:
Summary: Great for Advanced Speakers
Review: This set is great, and it's actually the only tape set that I found appropriate for advanced level Italian. I think a minor drawback is that the length of time in between some of the phrases doesn't give you enough time to practice repeating the phrase completely. However, I still think the set is fantastic. It puts idioms, different grammatical constructions and vocabulary in the context of realistic conversations.